English Language Learners need a lot of opportunities to practice their vocabulary in all four language domains. Students need to work on Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. As an ESL teacher, I was always looking for new and exciting ways to practice those language skills. Reading skills can be hard for English Language Learners to acquire. There are many components - decoding, fluency, comprehension. These activities practice a mix of all three and can be used with any vocabulary list. These activities are simple to prepare, and require no fancy materials.
Scrambled Sentences
This activity is a simple one with many variations. The idea is that students will need to reassemble a sentence or passage after it has been all mixed up. Start by writing or typing out sentences that use your target vocabulary. Then cut each word apart and mix it up. For students who need more support, you can provide a sample sentence that they then match the mixed up pieces too. If you want to add movement to the activity, give students an envelope with the mixed up sentence in it, and tape a matching sample sentence to the board. Students go up to the board, read the sentence then return to their desk to put the sentence together. If you want to make that more challenging, add a few extra words to the envelope. If your students enjoy some healthy competition, split them into two groups and make it a race! You can also do this with a short passage, cutting apart sentences instead. I used an activity like this to practice opinion writing. You can read about that and grab a free activity here.
Fill-in-the-blanks
This is another activity that is very simple to set up. Simply write out sentences using your target vocabulary, and then delete the target word and place a blank. Students will need to read the sentence and decide which word best fits. You can provide a word bank if that helps your students. You can make it more challenging by changing the word grammatically. For example, write the sentence so that students need to add an ‘s’ or ‘ing’ to the word.
Odd One Out
“One of these things is not like the other…” Admit it, you sang that. Well that is the idea behind this game. Provide students with three or four words or sentences and ask which one doesn’t belong. For example you could say, “sloth, toucan, cow, anteater”. Students would identify the cow as the odd one out, since it is a farm animal, not a rainforest animal. You could also do singular vs plural words, common vs proper nouns… the ideas are endless. If you want to bump it up a notch, do the same with sentences. Maybe writing two facts and an opinion, or two sentences in the present tense and one in past tense.
Ball Toss
You’ve probably seen or played this game yourself. It is a fun one, especially for kids who like to get up and move. Simply write some words or sentences on a ball and toss it around. Whoever catches the ball reads the word or phrase facing them. You can do this with a beach ball - simply write the words on the ball before inflating it. If you use a sharpie on a beach ball, you may even be able to erase it afterwards with a magic eraser or hand sanitizer. This may work differently on different beach balls though, so test it first! Another option is to write the words or phrases on address labels and then stick them to a playground ball. This way you can simply remove the labels, and use the ball for a different game later on. 
Kaboom!
This fun reading game is great for vocabulary or high frequency words. Write out your target words on large popsicle sticks. On a few popsicle sticks write the word Kaboom! Place all of the sticks into a cup. Students pull a stick from the cup one at a time and read the word. If they pull a stick which says Kaboom! they put back all of their sticks. You can keep going around the group until time runs out, or all of the sticks have been claimed. If you don’t have popsicle sticks, you can write the words on folded paper and put them in a bucket to pull from.
Wacky Punctuation
This activity is great for practicing reading fluency, and is best for older students who are working on understanding punctuation. Write out sentences or a passage and change the punctuation at the end of a sentence, or add in an extra comma. Students will read the sentence out loud using the tone, volume, and pauses associated with the punctuation you’ve inserted. 
Follow the Directions
This activity is one I talked about in my Listening Activities blog post, but it can also be used as a reading activity by simply giving the students the directions written out, rather than reading them out loud. First, find a coloring page that uses some of your target vocabulary. Then write out directions for how you want your students to color the page. Give your students those directions on paper so that they can read and color. 
Reading Tower
There are two pays to play Reading Tower. In the first version you write words or sentences with your target vocabulary onto blocks. Then students take turns choosing a block and reading it out loud. If they read it correctly, they can place the block on their tower. If they do not read it correctly they need to return the block. Play continues until all of the blocks are gone. You can use any type of block for this, wooden blocks or toddler building blocks work well. In the second variation, you can play Jenga. This is great for a review game when you have a lot of vocabulary to write on the blocks. Put one word on each block. When a student pulls out that block, they must read the word before placing it on the top of the tower. You can add some complexity to this by asking them to read the word and then use it in a sentence or define it. 
Word Hunt
Word hunt is exactly what it sounds like, and one of the activities I mentioned in my Vocabulary Activities Blog Post. For this activity you give students a book or passage with the target vocabulary and ask them to find the words. You can give them sticky notes to flag the words, or highlighter tape. Picture books are great for this activity.
Read
Ok, so maybe this one is obvious, but in order to sharpen their reading skills, students need to be given time to read. No fancy game, no activity, or questions, just simple, for-pleasure reading. With all that we want to accomplish in the little bit of time we have with our students it can feel like there is no time. I usually used free reading as an early finisher task. You can make free reading part of your class routine, maybe the first five minutes of the group time is dedicated to reading quietly. It can also be a reward they are working toward - a teddy bears and books day. No matter how you do it, giving students time to simply read will help them become better readers.
Are there any reading activities your students love that I missed? Did you try one of these activities? Share them with me by commenting or connecting with me by email, michelle@teachingeternity.com, or find me on instagram, @TeachingEternity.
